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Education, Employment and Workplace Relations portfolio

The Hon Julia Gillard MP

Minister for Education. Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations

Minister for Social Inclusion. Deputy Prime Minister

17 June, 2008

Transcript

Radio Interview 2GB, 5.20pm Monday, 16 June 2008

National Employment Standards, welfare, Belinda Neal

PHILIP CLARK:

 The Government announced new employment standards today, National Employment Standards. We thought we would have a chat about that. Julia Gillard, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations and Minister for Education and Minister for Social Inclusion. She has got a lot of hats; she joins me on the line this afternoon. You are a busy woman.

JULIA GILLARD:

 [Laugh] I am a busy woman but I am enjoying it.

PHILIP CLARK:

Tell me about this. Now these are National Standards released today. Now these are Standards, what below which employers can’t go?

JULIA GILLARD:

That’s right this is ten National Employment Standards. They are going to be legislated and applied to every employee in the country so whether you work part time in a factory or whether you are a professional worker in a hospital these National Employment Standards will apply to you. Then our safety net is going to also come from new simple modern awards. They’ll be for employees who earn $100,000 a year or less so…

PHILIP CLARK:

So they’ll be minimum conditions?

JULIA GILLARD:

So these are ten minimum conditions for everyone.

PHILIP CLARK:

 Can we quickly run through them?

JULIA GILLARD:

 Yes certainly. They deal with hours of work, with requesting flexible work if you’re caring for children…

PHILIP CLARK:

 So they can’t make you work, there are maximum hours of work are there?

JULIA GILLARD:

 Its defining the full time working week is 38 hours and then going to the question of reasonable hours beyond 38. Obviously there are circumstances where people do have to work beyond 38 hours but what’s reasonable. The right to request flexible work so if you’re caring for a child, a child who’s not yet in school…

PHILIP CLARK:

 You’ve got a right to request that have you?

JULIA GILLARD:

You’ve got a right to request flexible or part time work arrangements, your employer has got a duty to consider that.

PHILIP CLARK:

What, so they can’t sack you for it?

JULIA GILLARD: They can’t sack you for requesting flexible work, no. And what the evidence shows from overseas is if you structure a conversation in the workplace, often options become available that people hadn’t thought about before. Its not going to work for every workplace, we understand that. But with new technology, with changing workplaces there is scope for more flexibility than there was in the past and we want people exploring that.

PHILIP CLARK:

Parental leave.

JULIA GILLARD:

Parental leave and there are some new arrangements there which enable people to exercise an option to have a parent at home for the first two years of a child’s life. Annual leave. Personal leave, which is sick leave, carers leave, bereavement leave and the like. Community service leave which covers matters like going bush fire fighting in emergency circumstances, people who are in the State Emergency Service, who are fire fighting. It also covers jury service. Long service leave. Public holidays. What notice of a termination you need to get and what pay you need to get if you are being made redundant. And then a Fair Work Information Statement which would give you some information from the industrial umpire about your rights at work.

PHILIP CLARK:

These basically replace those minimum standards under Work Choices don’t they?

JULIA GILLARD:

Yes, there was this thing under Work Choices called the Australian Fair Pay and Conditions Standard. It only dealt with five matters and when you held some of them up to the light they were pretty tissue thin.

PHILIP CLARK:

Alright, so 38 hours a week.

JULIA GILLARD:

That’s right.

PHILIP CLARK:

Four weeks annual leave.

JULIA GILLARD:

 Shift workers five weeks but four weeks for a standard employee.

PHILIP CLARK:

Public holidays that they must observe of course and you’re entitled to parental leave.

JULIA GILLARD:

That’s right and these new flexibility arrangements help people try and put work and family life together and we know that that’s a big pressure point for working families.

PHILIP CLARK:

When will this become law?

JULIA GILLARD:

Well this will actually come into effect on the 1st of January 2010. It’s a companion to our new simple, modern awards; they are being worked on by the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, the industrial umpire now. We needed to get these National Employment Standards finalised because we want the industrial umpire making those simple modern awards knowing what these National Employment Standards say.

PHILIP CLARK:

Alright, ok good. Can I ask you on another thing which I have been discussing here today, the whole work welfare thing.

JULIA GILLARD:

Sure.

PHILIP CLARK:

It’s obviously of importance to any government because of the cost to the taxpayer. We were speaking earlier with an academic who tells us that in 1965 there were 22 people working for every 2 people on welfare. Today, or in 2005 there are 5. There has been a huge growth in the disabilities support pension and so on. What can we do to get people back at work when we have got low unemployment?

JULIA GILLARD:

 I think unfortunately the former government talked a lot about it but actually didn’t make too many real differences.

PHILIP CLARK:

We have got a huge structural problem here haven’t we? A rising welfare bill at the same time as everyone is doing their level best to get everyone into work and at the same time the graph on welfare is going the wrong way.

JULIA GILLARD:

You’re right and the mix of problems there is, in terms of the dependency ratio, the number of taxpayers to people who are reliant on welfare obviously with an aging society we have got more, older people on pension support and the like. And then of course we’ve got this issue of people who are on welfare, obviously some people need to be on welfare with profound disabilities, society should support those people but if people have a work capacity we want people working. We are generating and a disability and mental health strategy; it’s about getting people from welfare into work. That can be a complicated thing. It can require training and other supports but we’ve got to get people through and we’ve got to be doing much better than we’ve done in the past. So I would share the concern of people…

PHILIP CLARK:

Massive concern.

JULIA GILLARD:

 We’ve got to make a difference and if I could just be very clear about what I believe and what the government believes about this issue. People who can work should work and we have got to make sure we are getting people who have got work capacity into work.

PHILIP CLARK:

 Absolutely. I would have thought so. Alright, Belinda Neal will have to explain herself at some stage will she?

JULIA GILLARD:

 Well this subject is now police investigation so that’s got to take its proper course.

PHILIP CLARK:

Yes, I guess that’s so. Can’t be a happy moment to you in your private moments with the Prime Minister I’m sure.

JULIA GILLARD:

 Well, you know, the police are engaged in it now so I am, obviously we are going to let the police do their work.

PHILIP CLARK:

 Julia Gillard, good to talk with you.

JULIA GILLARD:

 Thank you.

PHILIP CLARK:

 Julia Gillard, Deputy Prime Minister on the line.

ENDS

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